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Talking Feds

Stone Cold Disaster at DOJ

Talking Feds

Harry Litman

Government, News, Politics

4.84.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2020

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Feds convene inside the LA office of Congressman Ted Lieu, a critical figure in the impeachment effort from his post on the House Judiciary Committee, at the end of a week of scandal and tumult at the DOJ. Congressman Lieu, former AUSA Prof. Laurie Levenson, and Atlantic writer Todd Purdum join Harry to discuss the cross currents of DOJ conduct, which ended the week with a Barr interview pushing back on Trump’s tweets and the announcement that Trump enemy Andy McCabe would not be prosecuted. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Talking Feds, a round table that brings together prominent former federal officials

0:13.0

for a dynamic discussion of the most important legal topics of the day.

0:18.2

For those of us who may have thought after the pyrotechnics of the impeachment trial that

0:22.8

a quiet week was in store, well guess again, it's been a week of significant fireworks

0:29.1

focused on the Department of Justice and Attorney General Bill Barr, which has undertaken

0:34.3

a series of actions that drew a firestorm of criticism from all quarters and especially

0:40.0

former federal prosecutors.

0:42.6

Much of the most intense criticism came from regular participants on this show, who authored

0:48.4

a fuselot of op-eds and tweets calling the events a four alarm fire, the worst moment for

0:55.2

the departments in Saturday Night Massacre and characterizing the department's reputation

1:01.2

as on life support.

1:03.8

By weeks and the criticism was so intense that Bill Barr, who is more or less from the

1:08.7

never-complain, never-explain, never-apologize school, sat for an interview with ABC News

1:14.4

in which he took the president to task for the president's meddling tweets, which he

1:19.5

said, make it impossible to do my job.

1:22.9

And the president already has fired back and asserted his right to continue to tweet.

1:30.0

So get ready for another gallup through a series of important and in some ways stunning developments,

1:35.7

mainly from the department.

1:37.8

And we have just the four horsemen if I can include myself here to lead the charge.

1:42.1

I'm Harry Littman, I'm a former United States attorney and deputy assistant attorney general

1:47.0

and a current Washington Post columnist.

1:50.0

I'm in Los Angeles with three returning feds.

...

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